The Many Sides of Naruto
by Kumonoito
Summary: Naruto is getting a little complacent with his clone use, and runs in to trouble with the women nin. Naruto/Hinata. Naruto/Tenten. Naruto/Sakura. Naruto/Ino.


"So what do you want in a man, Hinata?" Sakura asked, leaning her pink head on the quiet girl's shoulder, the traditional end-of-the-week happy hour sake showing in her warm tone.

"Oh please," Ino waved her drink dismissively across from them, spilling some on the table. "What she wants out of a man is for him to be a freaky blonde charity case named Naruto."

"Don't be mean," admonished Tenten. She had hoped Ino would have outgrown this kind of girlish teasing, now that they were full-fledged ninja. It annoyed her particularly when Hinata was the target. She so rarely defended herself. "Besides, have you really looked at that 'charity case' lately? All that special training with Jiraiya is paying off. He's gained some pretty amazing technique. He's not the misfit kid he used to be."

"Yes," exclaimed Sakura, a little more loudly than appropriate in her eagerness to also defend Hinata. A few of the bar's other patrons glanced over, but the regulars were used to the lady ninjas and their weekly ritual. "And have you felt his chakra lately? It almost oozes out of him. It's so… powerful… and warm."

Ino laughed. The fact that they were all talking up Naruto was so absurd, but she could play along. "Yeah. Okay. And what about the Akatsuki thing? There's a crazy secret cult seeking him out to do unspeakable things to his body. That certainly adds to his mystique, hm?"

The table quieted at that. Sakura, tipsy as she was, was sending warning glances at Ino. The Akatsuki wasn't necessarily an appropriate topic of conversation in a public place.

The awkward silence was broken surprisingly by Hinata, who was focused intently on her fingertips, pressed tightly together in front of her flushed face. "Ano… and he has started training… a lot, with… with his shirt off."

There were three contemplative 'Hmms' around the table at this observation. Naruto _had_ been training hard and often. It was not so unusual to see him only half clothed, chest heaving, and covered in sweat at the training grounds. The evening ended with the four colleagues unusually contemplative, each lost in their own thoughts as they went their separate ways.

-oOo-

"Oy, Grandma," chirped the bored Naruto, glancing distractedly around the Hokage's office. "It's Saturday. Did you really call me in here for business?" He was a little impatient, but not too much. He had already started his training earlier this morning and had a few clones out and about, honing techniques, running errands. So it wasn't like this was completely wasted time.

Tsunade looked up from her overburdened desk. She looked hung-over to Naruto. She must really be super busy if she was in here this early on the weekend after a binge. And she had ignored him for the first few minutes after he arrived, continuing to scribble furiously on a report. "Yes," she sighed. She searched briefly and came up with a small scroll for him. "I want you on this mission." She handed it over and went back to her writing.

He read it over, then he had to read it again, not believing what he saw the first time. He didn't want to give the hokage crap, not when she already looked like she was having a tough time, but this was too much. "A 'D' ranked mission? Have you gone senile? What's wrong with you?"

Tsunade sighed again. She put the nib down and folded her hands on the desk. Why couldn't this one thing have gone easy?

-oOo-

Hinata went about her usual morning ritual. First tea, then meditation. This was usually preparation to start the day's training, but her meditation was continually interrupted by thoughts of a certain boy… no, man, she reminded herself. Their childhood was over, and it was time she started acting like a woman.

She knew her friends were mostly trying to come to her defense last night, but she was also aware that more and more people were beginning to realize how wonderful Naruto was. In short, she was going to have competition, soon. Even she knew she wasn't so good at competition, but this was too important to her. She had loved Naruto for so long, that she would gladly fight for him.

But in truth, she mostly had to fight herself, her self-doubt, her hesitancy. Those weaknesses could cost her what she valued most in this world. And what had Naruto taught her if not that anything was possible if you set your heart on it and tried your best. She smiled at that.

His apartment was in a part of town she spent very little time in. It was a bit… dingy. She found his place with no trouble. She knew exactly where it was, even though she had never been there. Well. She had never been inside, anyway.

It took most of her courage just to raise her hand to his door, but it opened before her knuckles made contact, and she was greeted with an enormous bag of garbage. She leapt back, narrowly avoiding collision with the stinking mass, and Naruto himself followed it into the hallway.

"Hinata!" he exclaimed, pleasantly surprised, but then he looked confused. "Is something wrong?"

"Ah. No," she stammered. She held up the bento box defensively in front of her. "I thought it would be nice to have some lunch?" Then, realizing how early it was, she lowered the food. "Later?"

"Sure. Sure." Naruto's eyes lit up at the mention of food. "I'm just going to take this out." He gestured at the bag. "I've been cleaning." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I guess it would be okay if you came in. I'll be right back, okay?"

"Okay," she replied. He went down the hall with the garbage and she stepped into the now deserted apartment. It smelled like boy… man, she corrected again. She placed the food in the small refrigerator and noticed how very little furniture there was in the one-room apartment. The table near the kitchenette had a single chair. The only other place to sit was the bed. She blushed at the thought and remained standing.

Naruto raced back in to the apartment as if he had run all the way to the cans outside and back. "Hey," he greeted her again, smiling. He looked around, then, assessing his level of hospitality readiness and frowned. "I… uh, you know, nobody ever comes here."

He said it matter-of-factly, but it sounded so lonely to her. He had been so alone for so long, and she felt a sudden weight of responsibility. She could have been there for him all these years if she had only had the courage.

"I should make tea!" he exclaimed suddenly. "That's what you do when your friends come over right?" He turned away to put the kettle on the small stove. "Ah," he said, considering, "but I don't have any tea. Hey Hinata. You want a noodle cup? Ah. No. You brought real food… Um… We could…"

"Naruto!" she interrupted. She had to stop him talking, or she would lose her nerve. He looked startled, even concerned, at her outburst. The quiet Hinata was never this forceful. She stepped up to him resolutely, laying a hand on his chest. She felt so brazen, but it was important that she have his full attention.

And she did. He put his own hand over hers and held it against him. "What is it, Hinata? You look so serious." She looked up at those clear blue eyes gazing so intently into her own, and felt the warm pressure of his hand, her own hand pressed against the warm, soft, cotton tank top. The thin material was the only thing separating her hand from his body.

Could she feel his heartbeat? Or was that hers? "Naruto… I…" And then he wrapped his other arm around her waist. Belatedly, she realized he had probably done so to keep her from hitting the floor, because her knees had buckled and her sight was beginning to dim.

-oOo-

Tenten was on her way to train with her team in the morning when she ran across Naruto in the woods near the training grounds. She caught sight of him leaping through the trees, gyrating in midair as kunai flashed through where he had just been. She looked around curiously for who could have thrown them, but he was alone. Then she spotted a small spring trap in one of the trees. After she spotted the one, it was easy to pick out more.

Naruto deliberately reached out to trip one of the wires criss-crossing the trees, and began leaping wildly as another barrage flew toward him. Ah. He had set up the traps himself to train against.

She decided Lee and Neji would be able to amuse themselves until she showed up to join them, and her curiosity had been piqued since that conversation over sake with her fellow women nin the previous night. Naruto's speed had certainly become exceptional. There was no doubting it. However, she was still able to detect a weakness in his dodging, though. The way he turned as he was twisting away midleap briefly exposed his back to his theoretical attacker. He would never realize it with his current set up, though.

Tenten smiled and readied a kunai. There. He did it again. She let the kunai fly just as he turned. He… wasn't dodging! "Naruto!" she yelled. His eyes flicked in her direction and his hands flew up just as the knife hit. He dropped like a stone to the forest floor.

Oh. Crap. She ran over to where he hit. He was sitting there, brows furrowed at the kunai in his hand. "Hey. This isn't one of mine."

"No. It's one of mine. You… were supposed to dodge it," the sudden relief that he was alright made her tone accusatory. His eyebrows inched up a little, questioningly. "You were leaving yourself a blind spot," she explained, "but you would never have realized it if you were only dodging your own traps." His blank look was really starting to get on her nerves. "I was helping you train," she said, trying again.

Finally comprehension seemed to dawn. His face cleared and, nodding, he gave her a wholehearted smile. She had seen him smile before, rarely, but had definitely never been the direct recipient before. It was open. It was direct. It was nice. She smiled back. "So, you're here to help me train?" he said, incredulously.

What? Oops. He continued, "Yamato and Kakashi are on missions, now, so I'm just working on some basics. I'm working on my reaction time, here, but you're right. The traps aren't nearly as good as a real opponent would be." He suddenly grabbed both of her arms, "Tenten!"

"Wh… what?"

"You can do that amazing thing with the scrolls, right? Hurl hundreds of thousands of kunai and shuriken?"

Well, no one ever said Naruto was good at math, but she didn't want to curb his enthusiasm. And he thought it was amazing? "Well, yeah. Something like that."

He leaned his face down toward hers. "Do it," he said, intensely, and then leapt back just as the invasion of personal space was making her squirm. "Do it," he urged again, hopping from one foot to the other, excitedly. "Tenten-san! This is going to be great! Come on! Come and get me!" Then he took off up into the trees.

She had to smile even more. Neji was so serious and condescending. Lee was so focused and just freaking intense. Sometimes she felt like her presence on that team was irrelevant. Certainly under-appreciated. Naruto… made her want to laugh out loud.

"Fine!" she declared, whipping out a scroll case. "Prepare yourself, Naruto!"

-oOo-

Naruto was on his way out of the market while Sakura was headed in. They exchanged congenial nods 'hello' over the Saturday morning crowd as he walked past, loaded with four enormous bags of groceries. She spotted some leafy greens peeking out the top, milk, chicken, tomatoes… It looked very healthy. Just as she was wondering when he had learned to cook, he set the bags next to three small children in a cart waiting at the curb. A young woman patted him appreciatively on the back before pulling the cart away.

Naruto then picked up two smaller bags from against the wall. "You know, just when I start giving you credit for something… What _did_ you get?" Sakura asked, looking into the bags. As near as she could tell, there was nothing in his groceries but cup after cup of instant noodles. She sighed.

"What? It's just the usual," he protested, also looking into the bags.

"It's not real food," she said. "Honestly, I don't know how you've gotten so strong on just ramen."

He looked offended. She had just insulted his favorite food. "Not real food? How can you even say that? Look," he said, pointing to one of the packages. "Those bits there are chicken. And those bits there are… green, so, probably a vegetable. It's everything I need. Just look at me." He beat his chest, bags flapping from around his wrists.

"Ah. I don't think so." Sakura grabbed his arm and pulled him back in, heading first for the produce section. He looked around like he had never seen this part of the store. She knew she was one of his only close friends, so it was about time she took some more responsibility for him. She began pointing things out that might be good to put in the noodles. How to tell if they were fresh. How to prepare them. He looked dubious, but when they left the store again, he had a new bag with a couple of things he promised to try.

"So, it was nice of you to help that lady earlier. Do you know her?"

"Eh? Not really. I see her here sometimes. The kids can be a real handful, so I do what I can."

"Well, it was a really nice thing to do. Almost even thoughtful."

He shrugged, but looked pleased. "A future hokage has to start somewhere. Where, if not with damsels in distress?"

She was going to give him a friendly punch in the arm, for… she wasn't really sure what. Comparing a hard-working mother with a helpless girl? He was just joking. Shaking her head at herself, she told him, "I'm making a new resolution to beat on you less."

"How considerate Sakura-chan is today," he said, teasing.

"I'm serious. You don't deserve it. You're turning into a really good guy."

"Thanks, Sakura, but it's okay," he said, matching her seriousness. "It doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters."

"Sakura, it's not like you could hurt me," he said.

"What?"

"Nobody can." The sad note in his voice made her pause to hear the rest of what was on his mind. "It's funny," he continued. "Remember when I was a kid and so bad at everything. I was alone then, for lots of reasons, but also because everybody was better than me. Now, I have more friends, but with the kyuubi inside me and everything that's been happening, some days I feel like I'm almost not even human anymore, like I'm leaving everyone behind. It's a different kind of alone."

"Naruto…"

-oOo-

Two Narutos were balancing on the river, about twenty feet apart. The object was to interrupt the chakra flow of the other, dumping him into the water, while staying upright. They were down to their shorts, and had each been dunked thirty or forty times, when one of them started thrashing in the water.

"Hullo. What's wrong with you?" The first one trotted over to pull him out.

"Ow owie ow. I don't know. Muscle pull?" They limped over to the bank, and he sat down, massaging his leg. It felt like a groin pull, too far up for him to really get at.

"Well. Shouldn't it just heal?"

"It should. But it's not going away. Ow! Maybe it doesn't count as an injury so it can't heal?"

"Do you want to quit?"

"No," he gritted. Neither of them did. The exercise was partially to see how long the two of them could fling chakra at each other with the limited amount Naruto prime had assigned to them. If they quit now, they would just have to start over again later.

The uninjured clone knelt to see if he could help.

"NO! Don't touch me!" said the other. "We suck at healing. You'll probably cut the whole leg off by mistake."

He was frustrated. "We have to try something. It's either that or quit. You're useless like this."

When Ino happened upon them a few minutes later by the river, one Naruto was kneeling in front of another Naruto, who was prostrate on the ground. He had lodged one of the prone one's legs up over his shoulder and was leaning forward. As Ino watched, he repositioned, scooting forward for more leverage, so that the junctions of their legs almost met, and leaned forward again carefully, bringing their torsos and faces closer together.

The clone on the ground was making very interesting noises. The other asked, concerned, "Does it hurt? Should I stop?"

"No. No," the other protested, "Ng. It hurts, but it's good. Stretch me a little more."

They both looked up at the strangled noise that announced Ino's presence.

"Oy! Ino. You've got some med nin training, right?"

Ino carefully wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before replying, "Yes. Can I… Mm. Oh God… help you?"

They staggered upright (one more than the other), and indicated the problem. "We think it's a groin pull. That's easy to fix, right?"

Her eyes bugged a little, "Groin. Pull. Sure. Let me… examine the site." She struggled to get her professional detachment in place and bent to look at the leg and hip, running a hand carefully over the area. Carefully. It was a good looking leg. She had seen a lot of them at the hospital, sure, but if there were any better toned, they weren't this nicely shaped. "Hmm."

"What do you think?" asked the injured clone.

"Hm? What? Oh, yeah. The pull. You're right. Easy. Ah. I mean… simple." She pulled herself together and tweaked the muscles with a minute thread of chakra to get them to relax into their normal configuration. It only took a few seconds, but she tried to make idle conversation, distracted as she was by the proximity of the other clone who had crowded in behind her to see what she was doing. "So, what brings two lovely clones like yourself out on a day like this?" she asked, as casually as she could.

"Stamina training," they said together.

"Mng," she said, holding her stomach as if it pained her.

"Ino-san, what's wrong? Hey. My leg feels better."

"Nothing's wrong, its just…" She pinched the bridge of her nose, shutting her eyes, and then began to mutter to herself, "I'm not gonna… definitely not… bad Ino."

"Well, something's up. Is it something we can help with?"

She sighed, dropping her arms in defeat. "Fine. Yes." Ino leaned back onto the clone behind her, pulling the one in front of her close.

"Okay boys. New stamina training. Try to keep up."

-oOo-

Hinata struggled to stay conscious. She had resolve. She could do this. Even with his arms around her like this, where Naruto had lowered her to the apartment floor in her swoon. She meant to claim these strong arms, so she had to be strong, too.

"Naruto," she said, reaching an arm up around his neck to hold him. "I love you. I have always loved you, but lacked the courage before now. It doesn't matter to me if you live in this apartment or the hokage's quarters, or, even if you have to leave Konoha forever. I would be by your side. Always. While there is breath in my body. Please accept me."

"Hinata! I… "

Overextended, the clone popped out of existence.

-oOo-

Tenten hadn't had this much fun training since she was a child. Naruto shouted good-natured jeers and encouragement the entire time, and when he turned the tables and started to encroach on her between barrages she laughed. Specializing in projectiles, it was dangerous to let the enemy get too close. But she was having so much fun that, when he finally tagged her, she squealed unabashedly like a little girl, and, turning into his arms, kissed him full and well.

*pop*

-oOo-

"So, you see Sakura. You don't have to worry. If you like to beat on me, I can take it. You should just be yourself. I like you that way."

"Naruto. You just keep surprising me."

"Besides. No matter how much training you get from the hokage, you're still just a girl. So I have nothing to worry about."

*pop*

-oOo-

"Oh God. Yes! Yes!"

*pop* *pop*

-oOo-

"I know it's just housesitting," said the hokage tiredly, "but with Kakashi and Yamato unavailable for the next three days, I think it's the perfect thing. Out of town, but not too far. It keeps your whereabouts unpredictable. And it's not like you can do any meaningful clone training on your own."

Naruto stood there, uncharacteristically silent.

Tsunade looked daggers at him. "Wait. Are you training right now? Naruto! What were you thinking?"

Naruto held up his hands to ward her off. "It's just a few clones. And they aren't doing any advanced techniques or anything. Come on. Am I just supposed to sit on my ass? There's a war coming. I have to…"

*pop*

"Uh…"

Tsunade watched as a sweet smile spread across the face of her favorite trouble-maker. "I, uh… can we talk about this later? I have to go home."

*pop*

"Wh.. what?"

*pop*

"Ow! Dammit, Sakura!"

*pop* *pop*

Tsunade barely got a shield up over the paperwork in time before twin scarlet streams erupted from Naruto's nostrils. She leaned over the desk to see him flat out, bleeding on her floor. He was saying something, too faintly for her to hear.

"What's that, dear? Has there been a problem with the clones? Tsk."

He groaned, and lifted an arm weakly. "M… mission."

She grinned and recovered the mission scroll from the far side of the office, placing it carefully back in his hands. He rolled over, and began crawling for the door, hauling himself up, almost upright by the time he got there. He glanced back before limping out and closing the door behind him. "T… tell no one…" he stammered.

"Your whereabouts? No. No. Of course not. That's part of the mission," she agreed amiably, deliberately oblivious to the shell shock in those normally lively baby blues.

Tsunade went back to her overwhelming workload, humming, content that, even if she didn't know all the details, someone else had obviously managed to make her point for her.

End.

-oOo-

Please review. :)


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